A Jester wrote:I don't know that much about the lamplighters.........what are the other things I might not know about?

Most people don't seem to know about it, but the past 4-5 years the Lamplighters have brought the flame that burns in front of center camp cafe all week out to The Man on burn night....

in fact.. The Man doesnt raise his arms until the Lamplighters arrive with the One Flame and bring it inside of the Great Circle.. (inside of the L3K lights that forms the outside perimeter)

they carry** the flame in a big 400+ pound 5 foot tall lantern.. on their backs all the way from center camp to the man, then a full circle around the man.... You might have seen the big torches going round the man before he burns the past few years.. This is the luminferous procession.

This One Flame that the Lamplighters bring is what lights up the entire Fire Conclave and... symbolically, The Man.

there are some lamplighters who say that "we light the man"

**someone wimped out and the lamplighters dont CARRY the huge lantern anymore but push it on a cart... the old timers who had to carry the huge fucker on their backs are displeased and speak of walking bothways uphill to get to the unexperienced...

DPW and Lamplighters are two flip sides of the same coin. Not opposite, but rather both pieces of a whole. You need streets built, you need an electric grid, you need to build a city out of nothing. Then you need a city full of people doing shit, making it neat.

Both are rad, both are special.

If 5% of DPW are fuckwits, that's a pretty good failure rate compared to what I see in my daily life.

DPW totally stepped up to help with the heavy equipment on the Trojan Horse this year. Dedicated, professional and courteous. I did get some snarky sneering and guffaws from this tall, skinny, pierced, inked, gothed, dredded white dude at the Gate and Perimeter burn barrel one night. It was a sort of "Burnier than Thou" moment for him, I am sure. I think he found my smiling at him annoying.

A Jester wrote:I don't know that much about the lamplighters.........what are the other things I might not know about?

Most people don't seem to know about it, but the past 4-5 years the Lamplighters have brought the flame that burns in front of center camp cafe all week out to The Man on burn night....

in fact.. The Man doesnt raise his arms until the Lamplighters arrive with the One Flame and bring it inside of the Great Circle.. (inside of the L3K lights that forms the outside perimeter)

they carry** the flame in a big 400+ pound 5 foot tall lantern.. on their backs all the way from center camp to the man, then a full circle around the man.... You might have seen the big torches going round the man before he burns the past few years.. This is the luminferous procession.

This One Flame that the Lamplighters bring is what lights up the entire Fire Conclave and... symbolically, The Man.

there are some lamplighters who say that "we light the man"

**someone wimped out and the lamplighters dont CARRY the huge lantern anymore but push it on a cart... the old timers who had to carry the huge fucker on their backs are displeased and speak of walking bothways uphill to get to the unexperienced...

anyways..

it is a very cool thing to do.. and, uhh not really DPW's department

I saw this ceremonial procession, Wow! Seems it took all day, I think they started mid-afternoon. One Lamp Lighter woman was wearing an elaborate wedding dress and others were dressed in fantastic whites and such and everyone was very serious, also playing instrumets, brass horns if I recall correctly (it was my first 'real' year! & was difficult for me to absorb it all)... early on I thought one of the Lamp Lighters was going to pick the flaming iron urn up with his bare arms! I knew they were headed to the man, to light him...it seemed to go on for a long long time...eventually they disappeared in the sea of people coming from all points and finally they must have gone through the perimeter...by then I realized I was amongst thousands, and I settled down to watch the man burn

I guess in 2010 I lucked out more than I realized, 24/7 there was so much going on all around me! And I was camped 2 camps away from LL's camp and met several burners I had a connection with from my distant, far away past, and I met some new ones I hit it off with.

As for DPW, so far, the ones I met have always been cool to me.

I'm the MAN in a truck, burner who is stuck, you're in luck! I'll whip out my BIG tow chain and not charge you, not even one lousy buck!

chiefdanfox wrote:DPW totally stepped up to help with the heavy equipment on the Trojan Horse this year. Dedicated, professional and courteous. I did get some snarky sneering and guffaws from this tall, skinny, pierced, inked, gothed, dredded white dude at the Gate and Perimeter burn barrel one night. It was a sort of "Burnier than Thou" moment for him, I am sure. I think he found my smiling at him annoying.

Um....Gayte and Perimeter is not DPW there chief. There are some DPW who work with Gayte and vice-versa, but they are actually different departments.

chiefdanfox wrote:DPW totally stepped up to help with the heavy equipment on the Trojan Horse this year. Dedicated, professional and courteous. I did get some snarky sneering and guffaws from this tall, skinny, pierced, inked, gothed, dredded white dude at the Gate and Perimeter burn barrel one night. It was a sort of "Burnier than Thou" moment for him, I am sure. I think he found my smiling at him annoying.

Um....Gayte and Perimeter is not DPW there chief. There are some DPW who work with Gayte and vice-versa, but they are actually different departments.

chiefdanfox wrote:DPW totally stepped up to help with the heavy equipment on the Trojan Horse this year. Dedicated, professional and courteous. I did get some snarky sneering and guffaws from this tall, skinny, pierced, inked, gothed, dredded white dude at the Gate and Perimeter burn barrel one night. It was a sort of "Burnier than Thou" moment for him, I am sure. I think he found my smiling at him annoying.

Um....Gayte and Perimeter is not DPW there chief. There are some DPW who work with Gayte and vice-versa, but they are actually different departments.

*high fives Clar-i-ty*

and, you'd know GPE staff, much better looking and erudite.

Perhaps the burn barrell was an addition, i.e. I had no trouble with DPW, but GPE is out of control.

The Lady with a Lamprey

"The powerful are exploiting people, art and ideas, and this leads to us plebes debating how to best ration ice.Man, no wonder they always win....." Lonesomebri